1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to data transmission in a wireless network and, more specifically, to bandwidth adaptation for a multi-media application in a wireless network.
2. Description
In a wireless communication network (e.g., an 802.11 network), a protocol such as a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol) may be used, which may allow only one wireless transmission in progress at a given time in the same channel. Thus, available time on the network may need to be shared between different users active in the network. In addition if there is other unrelated traffic in the network, bandwidth needs to be shared with those traffic components as well. Time utilization with respect to a node in a wireless LAN network can be broken down into several components, one of which is network idle time. The network idle time is perceived by a given node with respect to the wireless medium, during which the given node is neither transmitting nor receiving nor is it in a backoff stage, and nor is any other node transmitting over the medium. It is desirable for an application, e.g., a multimedia application, to adapt its transmitting bit rate to efficiently make use of available time/bandwidth in a wireless network.